NASCAR should allow emotions to return
Larry McReynolds/FOXSports.com
While we are talking about the greatest rivalries of the 2007 Nextel Cup Series season, it got me thinking about one decision I was glad NASCAR made this season.
As you can see in the NASCAR on FOX Awards selection article, one of my two picks in this category was the Kevin Harvick-Juan Pablo Montoya battle which heated up at Watkins Glen International. I was so relieved that NASCAR did not fine those guys for their shoving match at The Glen. Why? Because those guys didn't hurt anybody. Stuff like that is good for our sport.
I realize NASCAR has drawn a pretty thin line across the sand about the things drivers say and do, and I've always been against guys retaliating with race cars because what do you accomplish by retaliating with your race car? All you do is create more work for the guys at the shop, most of whom are already working endless hours. But If you want to get out of that race car and if you want to scream at each other and maybe shove each other a little bit — something short of a getting into a strong fist-a-cuffs — I'm okay with that.
Emotions is what our sport was built on. The turning point for NASCAR was the 1979 Daytona 500, the first flag-to-flag coverage of a race on television. Not only was it a great race, but fans got to see emotions after that race when the two Allison brothers and Cale Yarborough parked down between Turns 3 and 4 and went after each other following Donnie Allison and Yarborough's late race wreck.
I realize we don't need to let things go that far today, but that's what grew our sport.
The one thing I am disappointed in is that NASCAR has taken a lot of these emotions away. Drivers know that if they show any emotion, they are probably going to get fined and, most important, have points taken away from them.
To me, it was pathetic that NASCAR fined Jeff Gordon in 2006 for shoving Matt Kenseth after the Bristol race. Why would you fine a guy for that? He didn't do anything. Now if he drove into the side of the car on pit road, that's a different animal — and I understood why they fined Kurt Busch when he did that to Tony Stewart at Dover earlier this year. Punishing Busch was the right call because he endangered pit crew members. However, if you want to park that car after the race and have a little confrontation with another driver, NASCAR should turn their head. If you let emotions come back, it would increase interest in the sport again.
I know we can't let it get as bad as it used to get because we are under a lot more of a corporate watchful eye and we have a lot of kids watching the sport. If somebody gets on television and drops the "f-bomb," knowing he is being interviewed, I understand him getting penalized. But if a guy gets out of his race car and goes over to confront a guy, maybe gives him a shove in the chest, just let it ride. That will bring some excitement and interest back into the sport.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/story/7521014
Larry McReynolds/FOXSports.com
While we are talking about the greatest rivalries of the 2007 Nextel Cup Series season, it got me thinking about one decision I was glad NASCAR made this season.
As you can see in the NASCAR on FOX Awards selection article, one of my two picks in this category was the Kevin Harvick-Juan Pablo Montoya battle which heated up at Watkins Glen International. I was so relieved that NASCAR did not fine those guys for their shoving match at The Glen. Why? Because those guys didn't hurt anybody. Stuff like that is good for our sport.
I realize NASCAR has drawn a pretty thin line across the sand about the things drivers say and do, and I've always been against guys retaliating with race cars because what do you accomplish by retaliating with your race car? All you do is create more work for the guys at the shop, most of whom are already working endless hours. But If you want to get out of that race car and if you want to scream at each other and maybe shove each other a little bit — something short of a getting into a strong fist-a-cuffs — I'm okay with that.
Emotions is what our sport was built on. The turning point for NASCAR was the 1979 Daytona 500, the first flag-to-flag coverage of a race on television. Not only was it a great race, but fans got to see emotions after that race when the two Allison brothers and Cale Yarborough parked down between Turns 3 and 4 and went after each other following Donnie Allison and Yarborough's late race wreck.
I realize we don't need to let things go that far today, but that's what grew our sport.
The one thing I am disappointed in is that NASCAR has taken a lot of these emotions away. Drivers know that if they show any emotion, they are probably going to get fined and, most important, have points taken away from them.
To me, it was pathetic that NASCAR fined Jeff Gordon in 2006 for shoving Matt Kenseth after the Bristol race. Why would you fine a guy for that? He didn't do anything. Now if he drove into the side of the car on pit road, that's a different animal — and I understood why they fined Kurt Busch when he did that to Tony Stewart at Dover earlier this year. Punishing Busch was the right call because he endangered pit crew members. However, if you want to park that car after the race and have a little confrontation with another driver, NASCAR should turn their head. If you let emotions come back, it would increase interest in the sport again.
I know we can't let it get as bad as it used to get because we are under a lot more of a corporate watchful eye and we have a lot of kids watching the sport. If somebody gets on television and drops the "f-bomb," knowing he is being interviewed, I understand him getting penalized. But if a guy gets out of his race car and goes over to confront a guy, maybe gives him a shove in the chest, just let it ride. That will bring some excitement and interest back into the sport.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/story/7521014
Seems like even Nascar.com is fed up.